The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the 2014 peace prize to a 17 years Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India for their work in helping to promote universal schooling and protecting children worldwide from abuse and exploitation.

There were a record 278 nominations this year, 19 more than ever before – including US whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Pope Francis. Also on the list of nominees was an anti-war clause in the Japanese constitution and the International Space Station Partnership.

The announcement was made in Oslo by Thorbjorn Jagland, the committee’s chairman, after a year in which war has spread into Europe with fighting in eastern Ukraine, and across frontiers in the Middle East after the Sunni militant Islamic State pushed from Syria into Iraq in June.

The committee cited Ms. Yousafzai’s “heroic struggle” for girls’ rights to education. Mr. Satyarthi was praised for “showing great personal courage” in leading peaceful demonstrations focusing on grave exploitation of children for financial gain.

For the previous two years, the prize had been awarded to international bodies: the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013 and the European Union in 2012.